Various stents are known in the art, including both uncoated and coated stents. Prior art processes for coating stents include tumble coating, dip coating, spray coating, and electrostatic spraying. Because stents are typically formed as a lattice of struts or wire or some other open framework, during the coating methods listed above the coating gets applied to all exposed surfaces of the stent, including the surfaces that face toward the outside of the stent and the surfaces that face toward the inside of the stent.
Some examples of stents and processes for coating stents are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,669,980, 6,743,463, 6,979,473, 6,984,411, and U.S. Patent Application No. 20050192662, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.